Olympic security dilemma solved

It took a soldier with a huge brain inside an outsized head to solve this security problem.

Last Saturday I set you a puzzle to solve. It was a security dilemma that sent a military guard at one of London’s Olympic venues scurrying off to find his sergeant. I laid out the scenario for you here, and asked you to guess what the sergeant decided to do – or what he should have done.

And I offered a prize for the correct or best answer – a CD single, I love the noise it makes by Declan Sinnott.

If you haven’t already, you can still have a guess. The original dilemma is described here.

But it was basically whether or not a spectator could/ would/ should be let into an Olympic venue with bottles inside which the water was frozen solid – keeping in mind that it’s forbidden to bring in liquids.

Here are some of your suggestions as to what happened:

Sorrygnat and Maxi say rules is rules, can’t take ’em in. Europa Spice Wolf goes a atep further suggesting that the soldiers confiscated the bottles to have the cool water for themselves.

Grandad‘s solution is clever:

I would have told her to remove the bottle caps and hold them upside down to prove there was no water in them.

If nothing pours out then there can’t be any water? “Carry on, Ma’am”….

29 said the parent should have delayed and melted the ice with hand warmth. Like all the above mentioned – he’s wrong. It didn’t happen that way.

Nick says no entry, because ice is basically a liquid – just frozen. For Tim, that makes it a solid. Val went off on a murderous tangent.

You’re all wrong. So who wins? Ursula – for her digression on liquid bombs, multiple suggestions and her own tale of airport security woe. She also wrote loads. So Ursula – Declan Sinnott is yours.

But hang on a moment. What did actually happen? This…

The sergeant handled the bottles. He poked them. He peered inside. He shook them. He couldn’t empty them because the blocks of ice inside could not fit through the narrow bottle necks.

He weighted up the two bottles. He furrowed his brow. He squinted. Not much to choose between them. One pink. One green.

He said: “This pink one isn’t so bad. You can take this through as long as you throw the green one away. So stick the pink one in your bag quickly before anyone notices. But you have to leave the other one.”

Not sure of the logic or security implications there, but it does show a willingness to compromise.

The parent accepted the deal, saying: “But how do you know the explosives weren’t in the pink bottle?”

Actually no. That last sentence was a thought not uttered aloud. Otherwise the small group would never have made it through to see Olympic sport that day.

So what do you make of the sergeant’s solution? (And when have you ever said anything inappropriate while going through security?)

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